Wednesday, June 23, 2010

South Africa 2010: Landon's Day

That goal by Landon Donovan was just amazing. You could feel the weight lift off of the entire team. For Donovan himself, it was clearly THE moment of an illustrious career. Well done, gentlemen!

But the real heroes of the day, the ones who may have saved the whole tournament for the host continent, were the Australians. The Socceroos, in defeating Serbia, helped Ghana to advance out of the group stage, likely the only African nation which will be able to do so. I suppose it's possible that Ivory Coast can overcome the 9-goal deficit between them and Portugal but it's unlikely.

All of this sets up a USA-Ghana tilt in the next round. Naturally, I would want the Americans to win. It would be great for soccer in our country. But Ghana winning would be pretty exciting, too: great for the event and therefore great for the global game. A win-win?